Greed God chapter 92 (Patreon)

January 31st 2016 Wintermark Castle 7:00 PM EDT

Drench  was radiating smugness under the spotlight, not that the expression  seemed out of place on him. "My employer has invited you here tonight,  to bear witness to history in the making. But more than that, to be a  part of that history, even as it is written." There was a rumble under  the castle, and light flooded the chamber, but not from chandeliers or  lightbulbs. The light that washed over us all came from below. Rivers of  power blazing to life under our feet even as they began to slowly shift  in position, overlapping each other in some places.

Everyone  was understandably unhappy about...literally every part of what was  going on right now, and several of them started bellowing in rage, but I  just told everyone. "Grab onto me, do not let go no matter what. I have  a way out of here but we need to all be touching for it to work."I sent  a command through the Brand for Strega to get her ass over to us too.  The Babylon Candle should get us past any defenses, and all I had to do  was aim us home and I could collect my baby mamas and get the actual  fuck out of town.

Drench seemed completely uncaring of the  screams of Gothams powerful, content to wait until they settled down to  continue speaking. "Now, I know you may be wondering what I mean by  that my friends. And I am of course happy to share with you. Tonight,  Gotham city changes forever. The great Warlock Doctor Gotham, who was  once known as the Sun King has decided to grace this land, so touched by  his influence with the honor of being the capital of his new kingdom.  You have been invited, as the Elite of Gotham, to take part in the  founding of this kingdom as potential nobles in the new order to come."

His  face was a weird mix of excited and sadistic, and I couldn't honestly  tell if he wanted us to be happy or sad about this shit. I also really  didn't like how vague he was being about how exactly anyone here would  get to be nobles of this new kingdom. i wasn't the only one either.  Penguin spoke up, his voice ice cold despite the obvious fury tending  his body. His voide cracked across the room like a whip. "Putting aside  how he plans to form this kingdom without our consent, or even if we  would want to be subservient to another, I fail to see anyone here  agreeing to be controlled by any of the rest. I assume some of these  nobles would be above the rest? How do you expect to choose?"

There  was a murmur of agreement through the crowd. No one here wanted to work  for the others, and they weren't down to become Doctor Gotham's bitches  either. Still, the display of power was enough to evoke caution in even  the most hotheaded of those present. They weren't going to allow this,  but they would let cooler heads prevail until they felt out how extreme  the threat was. The rioting light of powerful magic surging beneath our  feet was a hell of a warning about what these people could do.

The  sorcerer was delighted at the question. "Why, we won't! We couldn't  possibly select just a few of you fine people. The reason we gathered  you all here tonight is to allow you to choose for us. Or rather, to be  chosen for us. We're looking for very specific qualities in our  leadership, and all of you have some of the qualities in question. There  is one thing that will set some of you apart however. One aspect of  your worthiness that will become obvious very soon, and show us all who  deserves to be on top." His grin turned vicious as he snapped his  fingers. "Survival."

Webs of glowing runes blazed to life  along the walls of the room. The doors all melted out of existence, the  walls flattened and smoothed into featureless stone, and the balcony  itself was swallowed by the wall, removing Ivan Drench from the room  full of very angry, very powerful people who he had just informed of  their imminent fight to the death. There was a brief pause. A silence as  every person in the room realized what the hell was going on and had to  process exactly what was about to happen before all hell broke loose.

I  looked around, saw Strega two steps away, and stepped forward with the  hand not holding the candle to grab her. My movement broke the calm  before the storm and everything exploded into motion. I found myself  lifted bodily and hurled away from the others as the nearest person to  me, a masked man Barbie had introduced as Johnny Warlock in passing,  lashed out at the first sign of movement with some kind of force magic. I  hit the wall nearby with a crash unharmed due to the Mantle's defenses,  and before I even made contact I used the Brand to command Waylon and  Sally to protect the girls until I could reach them again.

I  stood up from the cratered stone, annoyed at having been thrown around,  and triggered my transformation. I was absolutely not going to let some  random Gotham assholes get away with fucking with me. Bane roared and  came toward me in a fury the rioting crowd closing behind him and  cutting off my people, and I caught his hands as he brought them down on  me, easily managing the meager force even an enhanced human body could  manage. Bane was G rank for sure, but I was F rank myself, and on the  higher end. This guy wasn't Waylon, he was just a roided out gym rat in a  gimp mask.

I yanked the weight lifters arms aside and bit  his fucking throat out with a roar. A nearby form, the man I recognized  as King Snake snarled in fury and attacked me head on, but I backhanded  him away casually into crowd. I headed toward my group, absolutely not  willing to let these assholes cost me any of my women or my guards. I  started hurling people aside, tanking bullets and attacks easily, until  about ten steps toward my group I got hit with something actually  annoying. Fucking ice. A wall of the stuff swallowing me and about ten  mobsters around me, locking me in place.

My eyes flicked  over to the direction it came from and I saw Mr. Freeze with that  obnoxious fucking gun. I called to the storm inside me, and electricity  began to play over my skin. Being a wyrmkin that wasn't a big problem  for me, though the melting ice conducted the electricity enough that it  was a big fucking problem for the mobsters, who all jerked and spasmed  in silent death throes as I tore myself out of the ice. I considered  going after Freeze, but he'd been swallowed by the rioting crowd, and I  needed to get the fuck out of here. I resumed my trek back to my group.

Doctor  Death was the next actual threat I ran into. I didn't bother killing  every one of the people in my way, I didn't have time to finish them  all. I just threw them all out of the way without bother to look back.  Death though forced me to actually stop, so I ripped out a few of his  bone spurs and shoved one through his eye. I left his corpse on the  ground and kept the other bone spur in case I saw someone I didn't like.

I  got sick of bothering though and just cranked my electricity full blast  from my entire body. A few idiots tried to get close but didn't manage  much before collapsing, unable to stand with the charge going through  them. I spotted a few bigger threats in the distance, people like  Solomon Grundy, who was incredibly visible in this crowd, but I didn't  feel the need to get sucked into this bullshit. I wanted out before  Doctor Gotham showed up and I got pressganged into his nobility whether I  liked it or not.

I  couldn't imagine what was happening outside, so the Babylon Candle was  my only real way home. With the city going nuts the trip would be a  nightmare. Hopefully Jade had taken my warning seriously and brought Roy  to stay with the girls, and probably her own kid too. A baby would give  them something to focus on instead of freaking out about me being in  danger. They would all be fine in the Palace, aside from being nigh  unbreachable by anything around here except Doctor Gotham himself, it  also stopped anyone from sensing anything inside, so no one strong  enough to get in would have a reason to actually try anything.

Regardless,  I made it back to the others without any real incident. Waylon had  transformed into his massive terror croc form and people were mostly  staying the fuck away. Barbie look relieved when she saw me. "Nicky!  You're ok. Also you have horns, those are new, but now isn't the time.  You said you have a way out of here?" Even my gung ho redhead wanted to  leave, so I knew it was way past go time.

I  reached into my pocket again as I ordered them to grab hold of me, then  I took the candle out of my pocket and held it up. The amulet came out  with it, and as it activated, the green flame of the candle lighting  itself, I couldn't help but stare into the Amethyst as it sparkled. I  wondered briefly what kind of place Gemworld actually was...and then the  candle triggered. There was a massive explosion of green flame as all  of us were flung through space faster than I've ever moved before, and  then a crash as we all slammed down into the ground.

I  groaned in annoyance as I climbed to my feet. "Ok. Well, that thing had  a hair trigger, but at least we're out of that hellhole. I still have  one use of the thing left so I can get us home. Is everyone ok at  least?" They fucking better be after I burned one use of my fucking  lifesaving super candle. If anyone had gotten hurt I was going to be  pissed. Doctor Gotham had seriously fucked up my day, and I wasn't  letting this shit go. I had a plan to completely screw up his bullshit  kingdom, but it was more long term than anything, I'd need a ton of  Greed Points to manage it.

In  the meantime everyone got up and looked themselves over. Zee spoke up.  "I think everyone is ok. Also where the fuck did you get that magic  candle? Because seriously, moving that many people through space what  seems like a pretty reasonable distance is major sorcery. That thing is  insanely valuable. Don't lose track of it. Also where are we? Because  I'll be honest, the purple trees kind of give the impression this isn't  Gotham." She sounded jealous, and I had to admit I was a bit smug at  managing to find the Babylon Candle.

I  chuckled and stepped forward to let everyone grab a hold of me, raising  the candle and amulet again...except it was just the amulet. There was  no candle. My eyes went wide. "Everyone freeze! The candle is missing,  look around for it." Despite saying that, I felt a feeling of dread  start to creep into my stomach. It had been literally wrapped up in the  amulet, which I was still holding. The candle SHOULD be here. But I  remembered wondering back when I got it how the hell someone had managed  to lose something that useful. With a sinking feeling I focused on the  exact wording of the Babylon Candle in its description in my memory.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Babylon  Candle- E rank. A powerful magical artifact with only two remaining  uses. By lighting the candle and speaking the name of your destination,  any place in the multiverse can be reached. The Babylon candle paves the  way past any barrier or defense, but gives the user no information on  what may already lie at their destination.]

I  felt myself growl in frustration. Paves the way. As in creates a path.  It didn't say anything about the candle coming WITH us. Which explained  why something that stupidly powerful was only E rank. I didn't have much  experience with the higher levels of the ranking system so I hadn't  considered that this one should probably be even higher than it was. I  stared down at the amulet. It had a function for traveling too and from  Gemworld, which was were we were, so weren't completely screwed.  Annoying as it was, I guess my hunt for a real life princess was getting  moved up.